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Low Carb Asian Feast

Every now and then you make a meal, not expecting much, and you end up really suprising yourself. I had one of those tonight and figured I’d better blog about it before I forget what I did. And since I’m still trying to get into that dress for my niece’s wedding, I decided to keep the meal low-carb. Asian without rice. It is kind of wrong…

I found this recipe for Asian Barbecued Steak a while back. It sat around until I thought, hey, I should try it. I obtained a flank steak specifically for this purpose. I marinated it in the chili sauce mix for about four hours or so. The recipe is for grilling, but I pan fried. My grill is still rigged for bacon smoking. I hit it for maybe four minutes or so per side (I didn’t really time, just felt the steak with tongs for doneness) then covered and let it rest for five or ten minutes. When it came out, I cut it on the diagonal, against the grain, and wow! It was tender, juicy and flavorful. Test subject Bill went back for seconds!

To accompany the steak, I braised up some bok choy and some kind of purple kale I got in my CSA box. Let me just say, I don’t really like kale. Or at least I’ve never had it in a way that I enjoyed. This time I sauteed it with garlic and ginger (the worst ginger in the world, thanks Publix), fish sauce, a little white wine and duck fat. I thought that by using some leftover duck fat from my very last duck (*sniff*) it would do something for it. It really didn’t. I even threw in a few teaspoons of sugar trying to do ANYTHING to make it enjoyable for me…but alas…nope. However, when I mixed it with a side of kimchi it was palatable.

The wilted greens may have been a bust, but the green beans were a hit! I got a bag of beans in my last CSA box so I cleaned and cut them and made a sauce of soy sauce, fish sauce, worchestershire sauce, garlic powder, onion powder, cayenne pepper and powdered mustard. I poured the sauce over the beans and roasted at 400 degrees for ten minutes or so. Very yummy! I’ll have to remember this because test subject Bill actually ate the beans, then made sure that I wasn’t thinking about tossing the leftovers. Success!